Brassiere



BRASSIERE William Rosenthal, Bayville, N.Y., assigner to Maiden Form Brassiere Co., Inc., New York, NY., a corporation of New York Application March 2, 1956, Serial No. 569,163

3 Claims. (Cl. 12S-464) The object of the present invention is to provide a brassiere which may be constructed of a single piece of plastic-treated fabric comprising the cups, a carrying frame therefor, and opposed band areas either complete in themselves, and thus which carry fastening elements for their connection at the back of the wearer or which in usual practice carry short elastic connections for connecting elements. A primary object of the invention is to so construct such a brassiere as to overcome a problern arising through curling and wrinkling of the fabricplastic frame below the cups through muscular movements of the wearer, said deformation extending upwardly from the lower edge of the frame, and rendering the garment defective and non-commercial.

The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which,

Fig. 1 is a view in front elevation of a brassiere constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a similar view in rear elevation; and

Fig. 3 is a transverse section taken on the line 3 3, Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, it will be considered that the cups 1 and frame 2 are in one piece, yet the frame including those narrow areas which rise at the outer sides of the cups and extend above the centers thereof, is made heavier and rm although flexible. Also the cups themselves, particularly at the under portions thereof are integrally reinforced, although remaining comfortably yielding. This is accomplished in the following manner:

To a piece of light, strong fabric are applied plastic areas, by means of one or more silk screens or their equivalent, and the said areas are cured or dried for the induration thereof. The plastic is fluid, of course, and passes through the appropriate screen or screens at all areas not blocked olf. Many plastic compositions resistant to the usual detergents and mild cleaning solvents, are well known in the plastic art. Such plastic compositions are readily available and the selection thereof forms no part of my invention.

It will be seen that by such screen process the light fabric for the brassiere illustrated in my drawing has received a continuous frame area of plastic, said area being indicated at 2, and which rises to a peak at 2x intermediate the cups 1. At the outer side of each cup the said frame area rises at Zxx to above the centre line of the cup and extends outwardly in the form of a back band shown broken away. The two back bands will in practice carry connecting elements as customary.

Above the centre line of the cups and to a peak above ICC each cup the brassiere preferably is reinforced by an under tape, and to each peak may be secured a shoulder strap indicated at 4. It will be seen that each cup is contoured by parallel curved plastic applied lines 6 which in practice will be heavier at the sides of the cup, which may be broken lines at the base of the cup, and which may be very light, or even omitted, at the top of the cup.

The fabric-plastic frame area 2 below the cups is reinforced by a plurality of ribs of plastic indicated at 5, and these ribs preferably rise in an inverted V formation at the centre area intermediate the cups. On the inner side of the frame is secured, by lines of stitching, each line of stitching being through and co-extensive with an appropriate rib or immediately adjacent thereto, a guard piece 10, preferably textile and resistant to stretch, and which is seamed to the brassiere per se at the edges. If desired a tape 11 may overlie the bottom margin of the guard piece 10 and extend over the bottom margins of the back bands.

The guard piece 10 in conjunction with the plastic ribs 5, and because it is tied to the ribs, whether by lines of stitching therethrough or closely adjacent, solves the problem of curling and wrinkling of the fabric-plastic front bottom area of the brassiere, and through all the muscular movements of the wearer. There is a retention of flat comfortable lines, unaffected by long periods of wear and repeated cleaning of the brassieres.

It will be understood that various modifications may be made in the form and arrangement of the elements illustrated in the drawings, within the spirit of the nvention. v

What I claim is as follows:

1. A brassiere consisting of a single piece of light fabric having cup areas, band areas at the sides of the cups and a band area at the base of the cups, said band areas serving as a frame for the cups, and the fabric of each cup having applied thereto concentric relatively narrow rings of reinforcing plastic, the rings having a common axis at the center apex of each cup, the plastic reinforcing lines being heavier at opposite sides of each cup, and lighter at the upper and lower areas thereof.

2. A brassiere constructed in accordance with claim 1, in which the fabric of the band frame area below the cups uniformly carries a layer of plastic, from which are projected spaced longitudinally extending reinforcing lines of plastic, in combination with a guard piece extending longitudinally thereof at the rear face of the brassiere, said guard piece extending substantially the length of said longitudinal reinforcing lines of plastic.

3. A brassiere constructed in accordance with claim 1, in which the reinforcing concentric lines of plastic carried by each cup consist of a plurality of said lines which are broken into separated sections from the apex outwardly and followed by a plurality of concentric lines which are unbroken at the sides of the cup.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,649,586 Josephson Aug. 25, 1953 2,686,312 Schmidt Aug. 17, 1954 2,772,418 Spanel Dec. 4, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 656,197 Great Britain Aug. 15, 1951 

